Intel® One Boot Flash Update Utility
User Guide
This User Guide serves as a reference document providing instruction on the use of
Intel’s One Boot Flash Update Utility (OFU).
Revision 1.01
Nov 2016
Intel Server Products and Solutions
Intel® One Boot Flash Update Utility User Guide
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Intel® One Boot Flash Update Utility User Guide
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Document Revision History Date Published Revision Revision Change Description
Nov 2016 1.00 First version
Nov 2016 1.01 Remove version 13.1, update to version 14.0
Modify Linux installation note
Add new command ‘Clears BIOS customized settings’
Format change
Intel® One Boot Flash Update Utility User Guide
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document.
Intel disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arising from
course of performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.
This document contains information on products, services and/or processes in development. All information
provided here is subject to change without notice. Contact your Intel representative to obtain the User Guide.
The products and services described may contain defects or errors known as errata which may cause
deviations from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.
Intel, the Intel logo, are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others
© 2016 Intel Corporation
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction .....................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Scope ....................................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Supported Firmware Components ...................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 When Updates Take Effect ................................................................................................................................... 1
1.4 Supported Operating Systems ............................................................................................................................ 2
1.5 Glossary of Terms .................................................................................................................................................. 3
1.6 Support Information .............................................................................................................................................. 3
2 Installation and Uninstallation .......................................................................................................................4
2.1 Prerequisites before Installing the Intel® OFU ................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Installing the Intel® OFU ........................................................................................................................................ 5
2.3 Uninstalling the Intel® OFU ................................................................................................................................... 5
3 Running the Intel® One Boot Flash Update ....................................................................................................6
3.1 Command Line Syntax .......................................................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Updating the Server from a Remote Client........................................................................................................ 7
Appendix A. Error Exit Codes ...............................................................................................................................8
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List of Tables Table 1. When Firmware Updates Take Effect by Platform ........................................................................................................ 2
Table 2. Supported Operating Systems .............................................................................................................................................. 2
Table 3. Glossary of Terms ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Table 4. Error Exit Codes ........................................................................................................................................................................... 8
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1. Introduction
The Intel® One-Boot Flash Update Utility (OFU) is used to update the BIOS and firmware on Intel® Server Boards
while the operating system is running, which may be launched from a command prompt in either the Windows*
or Linux* operating systems. In addition, this utility can also be executed remotely through a secure network
connection either using a Telnet Client and Terminal Services in Windows* or a Telnet Client and Remote Shell
under Linux*.
The Intel® OFU Utility is available in English only.
Scope This User Guide serves as a reference document descripting the features of the Intel® OFU Utility and providing
instruction on how to install and use the utility.
The Intel® OFU Utility is only supported on the following Intel® Server Boards:
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® processor E5-1600/2600/4600 v2 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400 v2 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v3/v4 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v2/v3/v4/v5 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® PhiTM product family
To find the latest Intel® OFU update package for your server, refer to https://downloadcenter.intel.com/search?keyword=server+ofu
Supported Firmware Components
The Intel® OFU Utility, with the update package for your platform, can be used to update the following firmware
components:
System BIOS
Management Engine (ME) firmware
Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) firmware
Sensor Data Record (SDR) firmware
Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) firmware
Intel® Remote Management Module 4 (Intel® RMM4) firmware
For the following platforms
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® processor E5-1600/2600/4600 v2 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400 v2 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v3/v4 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v2/v3/v4/v5 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel® Xeon® PhiTM product family
When Updates Take Effect Starting with Intel® Server Board platforms, the Intel® OFU Utility updates the FW and BIOS images passively
via the BMC controller or BIOS. The utility hands off the required image files to the BMC Controller or to the
BIOS. After verification of the images (signature verification and/or authenticity verification), the Base Board
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Management Controller FW or BIOS will update the images by itself. When firmware update finishes:
• The firmware update takes take effect immediately.
• The BIOS update takes effect from the next reboot.
The FRU update has only one firmware area, so the update will take effect immediately when the utility
executes. In some cases, the System BIOS, BMC FW, and SDR updates are programmed into their respective
secondary flash areas and the utility sets an internal flag in the BIOS and BMC to indicate that the update
occurred. After a system reset, the newer version of the System BIOS, BMC, and SDRs are validated and then
activated.
Table 1. When Firmware Updates Take Effect
Firmware Component When Updates Take Effect
BIOS Immediate
BMC Immediate
SDR Immediate
FRU Immediate
HSC/PSoC Depending on platform; mostly next boot
Intel® RMM4 Depending on platform; mostly next boot
ME Firmware Update Depending on platform
Supported Operating Systems The Intel® OFU Utility runs on the Microsoft Windows*, Red Hat* Enterprise Linux, CentOS* and SuSE* Linux
Enterprise Server operating systems unless otherwise noted in the Intel® OFU Release Notes or the Supported
Operating System List for your specific Intel® Server Platform. Both IA-32 and Intel® 64 Architecture versions
are supported for the operating systems listed below. The following table shows the supported operating
systems and platforms when this document is published.
Table 2. Supported Operating Systems
Platforms OFU utility
version
Operating Systems
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel®
Xeon® processor E5-1600/2600/4600
v2 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel®
Xeon® processor E5-2400 v2 product
family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel®
Xeon® processor E5-2600 v3/v4
product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel®
Xeon® processor E3-1200
v2/v3/v4/v5 product family
• Intel® Server Board based on Intel®
Xeon® PhiTM product family
14.0
Windows 2016 (EM64T)
Windows* Server 2012 (32bit & EM64T)
Windows Server 2012 R2 (EM64T)
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 EM64T
Windows Server 2008 (32bit & EM64T)
Windows Server 2003 (32 bit SP2 & EM64T SP2)
Windows 7 (32 bit & EM64T) for work station SKU’s
RHEL*6.x and 7.x (32 bit & EM64T)
CentOS* 6.x (32 bit & EM64T)
SuSE* Linux 11 SP1/SP2/SP3 and 12.x ( 32 bit & EM64T)
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Glossary of Terms The following abbreviations are used in this document:
Table 3. Glossary of Terms
Term Definition
BIOS Basic Input Output System
BMC Baseboard Management Controller
The primary microcontroller that controls the operation of the Intel® server management subsystem.
CFG Configuration (file)
FRU Field Replaceable Unit
FW Firmware
HSC Hot-Swap Controller
IA Intel® Architecture
ID Identification
IPMB Intelligent Platform Management Bus. Name for the architecture, protocol, and implementation of a
special bus that interconnects the baseboard and chassis electronics and provides a
communications media for system platform management information.
IPMI Intelligent Platform Management Interface
ME Management Engine
OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
RPM Red Hat* Package Manager
SDR Sensor Data Record
SEL System Event Log
URL Universal Resource Locator
Support Information
World Wide Web
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support.html
For a support contact list, see
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/contact-support.html
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2 Installation and Uninstallation
Prerequisites before Installing the Intel® OFU 1. Boot to Windows* 2008 (R2/SP1) or Red Hat* 6, CentOS* 6 or SuSE* 11 operating system.
2. In order to use the Microsoft IPMI* driver or Open IPMI driver for the OFU to update the
BIOS/BMC/FRU/SDR, enable the Plug and Play BMC Detection setting under Server
Management in the BIOS F2 screen.
3. Install all the development and optional packages during RHEL*, CentOS* and SuSE* operating
system installation.
4. In Red Hat* 6 OSes:
5. If the utility fails with the error message
"Error while loading shared libraries: libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or
directory"
Then install libstdc++-4.4.4-13.el6.i686.rpm and ncurses-libs-5.7-3.20090208.el6.i686.rpm from
the OS CD itself using the following commands:
#rpm -ivh libstdc++-4.4.4-13.el6.i686.rpm
#rpm -ivh ncurses-libs-5.7-3.20090208.el6.i686.rpm
Example:
rpm -ivh media\Packages\libstdc++-4.4.4-13.el6.i686.rpm
where the CD/DVD is mounted to media directory.
6. If the utility fails with error message
"Error: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: Bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory"
This indicates the development and optional packages are not installed. Install the necessary packages
accordingly.
7. In RHEL* 6.4 (or above), CentOS* 6.x, UEFI aware Linux or other Linux:
8. There might be a driver confliction between internal driver and kernel. You need to start up OpenIPMI
driver. If the utility fails with error message "FW interface failed" when updating BMC or “terminate called
after throwing an instance of 'ResultStatus' Aborted (core dumped)" when updating SDR with CFG file, then
start up OpenIPMI driver and make sure "/dev/ipmi0" device is existed.
Example, you can use the below command to start up OpenIPMI driver on RHEL* 6.4
#modprobe ipmi_devintf.
9. After enabling OpenIPMI, if utility still reports errors during BMC, FRU and SDR update, for example "Failed
to write SDR file.", "SDR auto-update failed" and "Error : Error while parsing the cfg file", there might be a
BMC watch dog conflict with OpenIPMI driver.
User needs to disable BMC watch dog, do update and enable it after update is finished.
10. In Windows* Server 2008 OSes:
The utility will error out if the Plug and Play BMC Detection setting is disabled. In this case, install the Intel
IPMI driver manually.
Example: Devicesetup.exe -v install imbdrv.inf *IMBDRV from the drivers folder.
11. Updating of BIOS, ME, FRUSDR and BMC is not supported by the utility if the BMC Firmware is
in Transfer Mode.
12. It's recommended to do a direct FRU update in EFI/WinPE before doing a FRU Resize with ustomized CFG
file.
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Installing the Intel® OFU If you downloaded the Intel® OFU package from the Intel support website, use one of the following procedures:
In Windows*
1. Copy the OFU zip package to a local folder.
2. Unzip the package to the local folder (example: .\flashupdt). Go to the flashupdt folder (cd
flashupdt).
3. Go to the Drivers\win folder. Choose x86 or x64 (depending on the operating system).
4. Run install.cmd to install the drivers.
5. Go to Win_x86 folder to execute flashupdt utility; the binaries are common for both x86 and
x64 versions of Windows* operating system.
6. Now you can run the command with options (example: flashupdt -u C:\tmp\flashupdt.cfg).
In Red Hat* Enterprise Linux or SuSE* Enterprise Server Linux
A. Regular Installation
1. Copy the OFU zip package (for RHEL or SLES) to a local folder.
2. Unzip the package to the local folder (example: ./flashupdt). Go to the flashupdt folder (cd
flashupdt).
3. # chmod 755 install.sh and # chmod 755 flashupdt
4. Install the utility using the command:
#./install.sh
5. Go to the RHEL or SLES directory (based on operating system).
6. # chmod 755 chaff2l.sh
7. Unzip the flashupdt.zip file to get flashupdt executable for Linux* OS.
8. Now you can run the command with options (example: # ./flashupdt -u /tmp/flashupdt.cfg).
B. RPM Installation
1. Copy flashupdt rpm from Linux-RPM-package (for RHEL or SLES) to a local folder.
2. If there is another version already has been installed previously, uninstall that version first
before installing the new version.
3. Install flasupdt utility by using rpm -ivh flashupdtxxx.rpm. This will install the utility in
/usr/bin/flashupdt/.
4. In RHEL/SLES after installing the rpm, close the terminal from which rpm was installed and
then execute the utility from a new terminal (example: # flashupdt -u /tmp/flashupdt.cfg).
For HTTP and FTP based updates, execute the utility from /usr/bin/flashupdt/ because curl
and chaff2l.sh files are needed for HTTP and FTP based updates.
Uninstalling the Intel® OFU In Windows*
1. Run uninstall.cmd to uninstall all the drivers.
2. Remove the flashupdt folder structure.
In Linux*
Remove the flashupdt folder structure. Or unintsall the rpm using:
rpm –e flashupdt
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3 Running the Intel® One Boot Flash Update
The Intel® OFU utility is run by executing the flashupdt command from a command prompt.
NOTES:
• In order to run this utility, you must first set the working directory to the directory where the utility is
installed. This is required because the utility depends on certain files that are expected to be located in
the working directory.
• The Intel® OFU requires Windows* administrative or Linux* root permissions.
• In case you see “Segment Fault” information or update failed related information, you are expected to
verify whether the BIOS/BMC/FRU/SDR update works in UEFI mode to isolate hardware issue first.
Otherwise, you are required to reference the OFU release notes to manually start the Open IPMI driver or
update the BIOS/FW/FRUSDR one more time to isolate OFU software issue.
Command Line Syntax Syntax:
flashupdt [-i] [-u <URL or path>] [-nac] [-h|?]
Description:
Updates the System BIOS or firmware on the local server with the System BIOS or firmware specified in the
Intel® OFU configuration file provided with the update package.
Options:
[–i] Displays the version information for the currently running System BIOS, BMC, and SDR. If the –i option
is specified with the –u option, the utility displays the version information of the update package files.
[–u] Performs the System BIOS (including primary BIOS, backup BIOS and NVRAM) and firmware update. The
<URL or path> parameter specifies the location where the files required for the update are located. The
value of <URL or path> can be a local file system path, an FTP server, or an HTTP server. Examples of
using the –u option:
–u
–u http://<IP address or URL>/<path>
–u ftp://<login:password>@<server name or
IP address>/<path>
Specifies the current local directory.
Specifies an HTTP server.
Specifies an FTP server.
If –u is used in conjunction with –i, no update is performed. Only the package information is displayed.
[-nac] This parameter is only supported after Grantley.
When updating with cfg file, SDR data is, by default, automatically configured and updated in BMC,
which do not need further user interactions. You can disable the default mode and use legacy SDR
update process with the /nac option.
[–h|?] Displays command line help information.
[-set] Sets different FRU area as below (for BMC systems)
flashupdt /set “areaname” “frufield” “value”
Where areaname can be “product” or “chassis” depending on the FRU area to be modified.
The following are the frufield parameters.
Pn – Indicates product name
Pnum – Indicates the part number
Pver – Indicates the product version
Snum – Indicates the serial number
Mn – Indicates the manufacturer name
At – Asset tag
Note: For the chassis area, the fields “at”, “pn”, and “Pver” are not supported.
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[-u] fru
<FRU
file
name>
Performs a direct FRU update of platform with specific FRU file.
-ccs Clears BIOS customized settings.
Syntax examples:
flashupdt –u ftp://ftp.example.com/UpdatePkg/ServerName/flashupdt.cfg
flashupdt –u ftp://Kevin:[email protected]/UpdatePkg/ServerName/flashupdt.cfg
• For Windows*
flashupdt –u flashupdt.cfg • For Linux*
flashupdt –u /flashupdt.cfg flashupdt -set product Pn intelco flashupdt -set product At xx123456 flashupdt -set chassis Mn intelco
NOTE: flashupdt.cfg can be found from Firmware Update Package for IDA, OFU, WinPE*, and EFI under
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/search?keyword=server+ofu for each platform.
Updating the Server from a Remote Client
This utility can be executed remotely via a secure network connection using a Telnet Client and Terminal
Services in Windows*, or using a Telnet Client and Remote Shell under Linux*. See your operating system
documentation for further information on remotely logging-in and executing commands.
Once you have logged-in remotely, you can use the syntax described above. This process can be scripted to
allow remote updates of multiple servers.
NOTES:
• After performing CFG based update using flashupdt utility, it is highly recommended to perform a power
cycle. Continuous updates through CFG file without power cycle/reboot in between could cause system
instability.
• Starting from Intel® Server Board platforms, the flashupdt utility or otherwise known as OFU utility
supports preserving OEM data through CFG file based update. For details of usage and command refer
to the white paper “Supporting OEM Activation 2.x on Intel® Server Boards”.
• For CFG based update, it is assumed that the HTTP/FTP server does not require any
username/password. In order to access password protected servers, change the chaff2l.sh or the batch
file and include the username/password.
The default in the .sh file:
./curl $1 -o $2 -s
For password protected server, change the line above as follows:
./curl $1 --user admin:pwd -o $2 -s
where admin and pwd are the username and password respectively.
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Appendix A. Error Exit Codes
The following error codes may be used when the Intel® OFU Utility is run from a script.
NOTE: the update configuration file (.cfg) may use the ERRORLEVEL command to override these values.
Table 4. Error Exit Codes Value Description
0 Successful termination
1 Invalid invocation or unknown command line argument
2 File was not found
3 Unable to read a file
4 A file in the update package is incompatible with the target server
5 A file in the update package is invalid or unsupported
6 Firmware interface failure (an error occurred when reading or writing to the BMC, setting the
update notification, or updating the BMC, FRU, HSC, Intel® Local Control Panel, or SDR)
7 BIOS interface failure (an error occurred when reading the BIOS ID, setting the update
notification, or updating the System BIOS)
8 Insufficient rights (the user must have Administrator or root rights)
9 Instance of another utility already running. If so, wait for the instance to finish and then start
again.
10 Unknown error
